​Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says that Anthony Martial is starting from scratch after missing over a week of pre-season training due to the birth of his son.

Martial flew home from United’s tour of the United States to be with his wife Melanie Da Cruz as she gave birth in Paris. He chose to stay with his wife for a few days after the birth, a decision for which he was bizarrely criticised for by Mourinho.​

The midfielder featured in two of United’s friendlies but Mourinho insists that he didn’t have a pre-season and must therefore start in the same position as the players who have just returned from extended holidays after the World Cup.

“Martial didn’t have a pre-season,” said Mourinho, quoted by ​ESPN. “He had nine days of pre-season where no training, no football, absolutely nothing.

Mourinho on Martial, “He didn’t play against Munich because he didn’t have a pre-season. He only had three days pre-season. It’s as simple as that, there is no case [story], for nine days he didn’t train.”

— Chris Winterburn (@cmwinterburn) August 9, 2018

“He’s in the group of players who didn’t have a preseason, it’s as simple as that. For nine days he didn’t train, so he’s to start again.

“He had the first three or four days of training and first couple of matches where he played 40 or 50 minutes.

“When you are nine days without one minute of training or football, you go back and start with the other people.”

Another Frenchman who actually had no pre-season, Paul Pogba, could be on the bench for United in their season opener against Leicester on Friday, despite returning to training just this week.

“He arrived Monday, happy, proud, a desire to work”, said Mourinho.

“He worked amazingly well Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and he’s one of the players that I have to speak to see how physically and mentally he feels.

“We don’t have many solutions and we want to go with everything we have.”

Pogba scored for France in July’s World Cup final and will hope to transfer his international success to United.